Denise Holmes lives on a Gorham corner notorious for traffic accidents. Cars have landed on her lawn and slammed into two apple trees well off the road.
“I mow the lawn, and I’m always looking over my back,” Holmes said. “Almost every week there’s some type of accident.”
Now the state is studying ways to improve the hazardous corner where New Portland Road intersects with Brackett Road and Libby Avenue. Among the alternatives is a $1.2 million roundabout.
A traffic light blinks yellow on New Portland Road and blinks red warning drivers to stop on both Brackett Road and Libby Avenue, which also have stop signs at the intersection. But, in a three-year span, from 2005-2007, the state reported 24 crashes there.
In May 2008, a fatal collision at the intersection claimed the life of a 79-year old Gorham woman, Ida (Betty) Johnston. A three-car smashup on June 8 hospitalized a driver. The crest of a hill on New Portland Road is just short distance from the intersection and the speed limit along that stretch of New Portland Road is 45 mph.
“When an accident occurs there, it’s a serious accident,” Gorham Police Chief Ron Shepard said.
The New Portland Road approach to the intersection was upgraded several years ago, but the improvements didn’t wipe out collisions.
“They made it wider,” Holmes said, “but it’s faster.”
Darryl Belz, a Maine Department of Transportation planner, said the roundabout is an option the state is considering to improve safety.
“Until it goes into the design stage, it’s just a concept,” Belz said recently about a possible roundabout, which would be the fifth in Gorham. “Nothing is final,” he said.
Gorham has three roundabouts at the new bypass intersections and another in Little Falls at the intersection of routes 202 and 237.
“Overall, the roundabouts are working good,” Shepard said.
New Portland Road, which links Gorham with Westbrook, has an average traffic count of 6,200 to 6,500 vehicles daily. Allison Turner, a Gorham resident, said it is like any other intersection.
“You have to take precautions – look both ways,” she said.
Although not a numbered highway, New Portland Road is considered an arterial and both Brackett Road and Libby Avenue also are heavily used by rush hour commuters.
“A roundabout would slow everyone down,” Shepard said.
Phil Thibault, a teacher at St. Joseph’s College who has traveled through France, said roundabouts are a European concept. Thibault said in France roundabouts and roads are designed as a “single, uniform element. “
“You have an approach to a roundabout,” Thibault said about those in France. “Here, it’s a total surprise,” Thibault said.
Holmes once lived in Ireland, which has roundabouts she said were designed so drivers couldn’t take shortcuts. “They didn’t plop them in,” she said.
But, here she doesn’t think drivers respect roundabouts.
“People go right over them,” Holmes said.
She’s hoping for a highway improvement at the intersection near her home. Holmes, who worries about safety of her children, once witnessed a driver slam into a utility pole to avoid smashing into an existing accident. Holmes said people at Wyman’s Auto Body, a business at the intersection, are frequently in the street aiding crash victims.
Joe Wyman, owner of Wyman’s Auto Body, said, “If they had done it right before, they wouldn’t have to talk about a roundabout.”
Wyman said New Portland Road was built up near the intersection, but he said the hilltop needs lowering. “If they had taken down the hill, you could see way up the road,” Wyman said. “Take the hill down.”
“I could write a book about the intersection,” Wyman said,
With a home on the Libby Avenue hillside overlooking the intersection, Cliff Perry favors a four-way red light on cross beams high above the intersection to make it more visible. “They would have to stop, period,” Perry said.
The state claimed in a statement when the bypass opened in December that roundabouts handle traffic more efficiently than signaled intersections, are less costly to maintain than traffic signals and are safer.
“Roundabouts are emerging as an intersection solution nationwide because of safety,” said Herb Thomson, director of communication for the state transportation department.
But Perry said the red light plus tapering all approaches to the intersection on the three roads would be more economical than the total cost of acquiring property plus the expense of constructing a roundabout. He said Holmes would get to keep her apple trees and the body shop could stay.
Thibault, who went to school in Gorham but now lives in Cumberland, has seen big changes in Gorham traffic over the years.
” I graduated in 1974 when all the roads were sane and beautiful,” he said.
Cutline (GOR intersection ) ortland Road towards Gorham.
Cutline (GOR intersection 2) 
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